in annual spending cuts were agreed to under president obama as part of the debt ceiling negotiation. those begin on tuesday. we have the payroll tax cut in place for two years, takes about two percentage points off people's taxes, bill will end on monday. business tax breaks, bill will end on monday. the alternative minimum tax, which is confusing, but it would be a disaster if that was not taken care of, because it would raise the taxes of about 30 million americans for their 2012 income and 2013. and all the confusion could screw up the whole tax filing season. who knows when you will be filing your taxes, because the irs does not know which tax rates will be applied and who will be responsible for paying what. so it's going to be a mess if this is not handled quickly. host: if we are sitting here a month from now after the inauguration and there's still no final agreement on taxes, could that the label 15 -- guest: no doubt about it. secretary dieter even said that a few days ago. --secretary tim geithner. it could delay the tax filings. the government relies on august revenue to

spending cuts and tax increases will take effect if no agreement is reached. obama and the rest of republicans remain of the impasse over the republican refusal to allow tax hikes even for the wealthiest americans. senate majority leader on thursday accused house speaker john boehner of holding up a deal. >> the american people i don't think understand the house representative is operating without the house of representatives. it is being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker, not allowing the vast majority of the house representatives to get what they want. >> adding to the urgency surrounding the talks, treasury secretary timothy geithner warned this week the u.s. will not be able to pay its creditors after monday unless the debt ceiling is raised. we will have more on the fiscal cliff talks, speaking with congressmember dennis kucinich after the headlines. environmental protection agency head lisa jackson has announced a resignation ahead of president obama's second term. jackson departs after a four- year tenure that saw advances in the regulation of environmentally harpo

obama senior what through the compound of the obama clan down they are and saw the gravesite of obama his great-grandfather, the person for whom the obama name derived. just kind of amazing stuff all day. >> host: you spend a lot of time in interviews talking about the tribal situation in kenya. >> guest: it explains a lot about barack obama senior. this book is more than just a biography of barack obama who became president of the united states. it's about the places they created him come the people that created and starred in two generations back and moving through to obama himself. and his father in some ways represented the promise and the frustrations of africa and of kenya and on a more personal level of the sudden brilliance in flawless. and some of that have to do with tribalism. the luo are the second largest tribe in kenya in the colonial period when the british dominated kenya really created the sort of tribalism putting all the different tribes into the reserves in different parts of the country. and so when they got independence in god power, there was this unfortunate so

spending cuts were agreed to under president obama as part of the debt ceiling negotiation. those begin on tuesday. we have the payroll tax cut in place for two years, takes about two percentage points off people's taxes, bill will end on monday. business tax breaks, bill will end on monday. the alternative minimum tax, which is confusing, but it would be a disaster if that was not taken care of, because it would raise the taxes of about 30 million americans for their 2012 income and 2013. and all the confusion could screw up the whole tax filing season. who knows when you will be filing your taxes, because the irs does not know which tax rates will be applied and who will be responsible for paying what. so it's going to be a mess if this is not handled quickly. host: if we are sitting here a month from now after the inauguration and there's still no final agreement on taxes, could that the label 15 -- guest: no doubt about it. secretary dieter even said that a few days ago. --secretary tim geithner. it could delay the tax filings. the government relies on august revenue to come in and

spending reform. and the other viewer says obama and the other i had yots until the white house are doing what they do best, talk. guest: right after the election we heard them say the election is behind us, we can put down our swords and get down to doing the country's business. that evaporated within days and now we are back to where we were in the summer of 2011 where everyone is back in their corners blaming the other side and not making progress at all. businesses are refrenching and families are holding back on spending and it's going to have an impact on the economy. host: why is compromise so difficult in this environment? guest: the way that the pry mir system has worked has canched out the middle a little. also we're dealing with the situation where with a 24 hour news cycle they get blow back more quickly on ideas and talks so they are both afraid of the outer wings of their party and at this point it seems compromise is something that is hard to reach. >> dow is down although not a huge amount. >> right guest: right host: meeting with the president and c.e.o.'s are frust